I used Alliant bill payer service to make a payment to my Alliant Platinum Rewards Visa a couple of days ago. The payment shows in my Alliant checking as having been debited. It also shows correctly in my Bill Payer history.Stoopid question... Why did you pay it that way, when you could have issued a transfer between accounts? Alliant CU Visa shows up as an account you can transfer to. Another possible benefit of paying that way is that a transfer issued from your savings may not ding your Reg. D 6 transfer limit.

I used Alliant bill payer service to make a payment to my Alliant Platinum Rewards Visa a couple of days ago. The payment shows in my Alliant checking as having been debited. It also shows correctly in my Bill Payer history.Stoopid question... Why did you pay it that way, when you could have issued a transfer between accounts? Alliant CU Visa shows up as an account you can transfer to. Another possible benefit of paying that way is that a transfer issued from your savings may not ding your Reg. D 6 transfer limit.

OK, it's all good. While my payment did not show up earlier today, two days later . . . it is showing up now. It is posted in my Alliant CC account now. So I'm good.

I probably jumped the gun with my earlier post. I just needed to be patient. It was wrongheaded of me to think a payment made from Alliant, TO Alliant, would be a problem.

But it always makes me crazy when Alliant threatens to make payments by (snail) mail, something they do all the time. First, I run to my calendar and check the year. Yup, it's actually 2013! I was right about that. So how can they be talking about use of snail mail, for goodness sake, in 2013!! Dunno. It always rattles me and throws me off.

As for direct transfer . . . yeah, OK. I prefer to use Alliant Bill Payer because it gives me all my payees in one list. I like that, I like to see the lineup and to be able to see my last payments to all of them . . all together. Got no problem with use of direct, account to account, transfer. But for me Bill Payer works better. My Alliant CC is one of many. I want to see them all together in ONE list. This is no more than a matter of personal preference. And I like the way Alliant does Bill Payer. I'm used to it and it works for me.

Alliant Bill Payer, in your list of payees, shows you the amount and date of your last payment for each payee. I use that data because I'm doing a lot of "keep alives" that are annoying to manage. So I look at the date of the last payment and use that as a guide for when I likely will need to pay again. Account to account transfer would be outside my system. I appreciate that Alliant gives us the choice of making the payment by the method that works best for each of us individually.

propcgamer said: guardian44 said: OK, it's all good. While my payment did not show up earlier today, two days later . . . it is showing up now. It is posted in my Alliant CC account now. So I'm good.

Maybe they mail it to themselves What was the transaction post date on your card?

Yeah, I should have mentioned that. Thanks.

My payment was posted to my Alliant CC account just one day after I did the Bill Payer payment. This is normal.

Payment was dated, like I wrote, just one day later. But I could not SEE that payment, in my CC account, for one additional day.

It's all much ado about nothing. But, yeah, you're right . . they did threaten to send a (snail) mail payment to themselves. And when the payment didn't show up right away, the next day, I became just a teensy bit concerned they might have acted on that threat!

propcgamer said: guardian44 said: OK, it's all good. While my payment did not show up earlier today, two days later . . . it is showing up now. It is posted in my Alliant CC account now. So I'm good.

Maybe they mail it to themselves What was the transaction post date on your card?

You joke, but this is exactly what they do. As I mentioned, after a succesfull bill pay payment in Alliant bill pay, the Alliant credit card account shows check, whereas other institutions show electronic.

For the record: He didn't specifically say savings, but he mentioned the upcoming rate drop just after I made a deposit to savings so I assume that's what he was referring to -- didn't think to confirm until after I had left.

Just to update, Wesleman and craig10x were correct about the issue linking Alliant with my Redneck Mega account. I entered Redneck as a checking account and this time the link has remained for over a week (the last two times, it was removed after a few days).

So why is it that people on the Alliant thread on Fatwallet know this and Redneck customer service doesn't??

For the record: He didn't specifically say savings, but he mentioned the upcoming rate drop just after I made a deposit to savings so I assume that's what he was referring to -- didn't think to confirm until after I had left.

That's disappointing. I have four accounts with higher rates than that. As much as I love Alliant, I can't justify leaving much in my accounts at those rates (particularly if they go down to .7% and .65%).

I share everyone's disappointment over the lower rate. But I'm staying with Alliant without question. I leave a respectable amount of money in my Alliant accounts, both savings and checking, all the time. It's because Alliant is my hub financial services provider. I could not run my financial life without this CU. So I have no choice but to offer Alliant a measure of support.

Is there anything that could cause me to leave Alliant? Yup. If they mess with their website I might consider a different provider. The Alliant website is Spartan and extremely fast. I don't want a lot of useless crap and graphics with my on-line account information. I just want essentials. And with Alliant that's exactly what I get. Any redesign of the Alliant website to make it fancier will be a huge negative from where I sit.

The drop is disappointing so I will move some money. A respectable amount for me will be < $5000.

An odd thing did happen to my account though. When I logged on there was a RED LETTERED Alert on the top of the page. The Post Office sent them some kind of notice that I had two different addresses (which I do, about 15 miles apart). As I went to transfer $1500 yesterday my ACH limit was capped at $1000. It was $100,000. Called and they wanted to confirm the "on record" address, which I did, and they said the limit would be reset to original amount.

I dont know How the USPS got into this as mailing address has always been the same for this account.So I guess BIG BROTHER is out there.

Though this does show that Alliant does have some pretty good customer protection service. But the interaction of the USPS is really weird.

Pretty sure Redneck and its two sister banks (AmericaNet and Evantage) are aware of this. I now remember where they have the "treat the mega money market account as a checking account" verbage. When you sign up for online banking, it'll tell you Mega Money Market = Checking Account.

As to why Redneck Bank is not telling their CSRs about this, I have no clue...

Arfanbarkler said: Just to update, Wesleman and craig10x were correct about the issue linking Alliant with my Redneck Mega account. I entered Redneck as a checking account and this time the link has remained for over a week (the last two times, it was removed after a few days).

So why is it that people on the Alliant thread on Fatwallet know this and Redneck customer service doesn't??

Maybe you've been had by the RETURN ADDRESS REQUESTED wording on most junk mails?! I mean someone/something at the post office inadvertently gave Alliant your "other" address.

castaline said: The drop is disappointing so I will move some money. A respectable amount for me will be < $5000.

An odd thing did happen to my account though. When I logged on there was a RED LETTERED Alert on the top of the page. The Post Office sent them some kind of notice that I had two different addresses (which I do, about 15 miles apart). As I went to transfer $1500 yesterday my ACH limit was capped at $1000. It was $100,000. Called and they wanted to confirm the "on record" address, which I did, and they said the limit would be reset to original amount.

I dont know How the USPS got into this as mailing address has always been the same for this account.So I guess BIG BROTHER is out there.

Though this does show that Alliant does have some pretty good customer protection service. But the interaction of the USPS is really weird.

Those switching because of the small drop at Alliant Cu should take note that if you read the Highest Yielding Savings Accounts thread here on FW you will see others are also dropping their rates this month (including Ally and Sallie Mae) and also, does it really pay to switch from say Alliant to Barclays, where, assuming you have $100,000 to move, you would only end up with about an extra $250 roughly for a year (after taxes) on that $100,000?

I guess i could see it if you have say $200,000 to $300,000 to move, and if you have less then $100,000, well then the difference will be EVEN LESS...and then of course, you are doing it on the "assumption" that Barclays will hold fast at their current rate, which one can not really know for sure...

I'm staying put (and i have $100,000 at Alliant)...your decision of course, but you might want to give it some thought

craig10x said: Those switching because of the small drop at Alliant Cu should take note that if you read the Highest Yielding Savings Accounts thread here on FW you will see others are also dropping their rates this month (including Ally and Sallie Mae) and also, does it really pay to switch from say Alliant to Barclays, where, assuming you have $100,000 to move, you would only end up with about an extra $250 roughly for a year (after taxes) on that $100,000?

I guess i could see it if you have say $200,000 to $300,000 to move, and if you have less then $100,000, well then the difference will be EVEN LESS...and then of course, you are doing it on the "assumption" that Barclays will hold fast at their current rate, which one can not really know for sure...

I'm staying put (and i have $100,000 at Alliant)...your decision of course, but you might want to give it some thought

I'm still planning on keeping Alliant as a hub and primary checking account, but an extra few hundred dollars a year for the 30 seconds it took to make a couple transfers (okay, plus 15 minutes or so to get the Redneck link correctly established) made it an easy decision for me to move a large portion out. If Redneck (at 1.1% for $35K) and Ally (recently down to .9%) go lower than Alliant, I can move the money back in another 30 seconds. Sure, there are sometimes lost days of interest, but it's usually only a day. I use this Interest Rate Chaser Calculator.

TheWalL said: hhkb said: TheWalL said: Based near Chicago...I used to work in Sears tower where Alliant has a branch that's inside the united floor but so long as you have access to the building, you can go into the branch.

Not true. You can get to the floor, but the Alliant branch is for United employees only. You even need an employee badge to open the branch door. Trust me, I tried .

hmm...must have changed recently then. I definitely went in and got a CU check for closing from them back in the summer.I suspect that this is like the branch at SFO. It also requires a badge to unlock the door, but it's often open or not locked. As far as I can tell, the tellers don't care whether you're an employee or not.

tjguitar85 said: propcgamer said: guardian44 said: OK, it's all good. While my payment did not show up earlier today, two days later . . . it is showing up now. It is posted in my Alliant CC account now. So I'm good.

Maybe they mail it to themselves What was the transaction post date on your card?

You joke, but this is exactly what they do. As I mentioned, after a succesfull bill pay payment in Alliant bill pay, the Alliant credit card account shows check, whereas other institutions show electronic.

Strangely, even if you do it as a transfer instead of bill pay, the payment still isn't immediate.

Just wanted to post a heads up here for anyone else participating in the ongoing Alliant Platinum Rewards $200 giveaway. It's a two part deal, really. First, if you spend your thousand you earn 20,000 points. Second, you gain access, for a year, to free balance transfers at zero interest up to your credit limit.

Focus on point redemption. It's not cash. Instead, it's a statement credit. So now looking at the intersection of the two aforementioned aspects of this deal:

If you're carrying a balance (at 0%) owing to balance transfer activity, your statement credit from the points deal will merely wipe away a portion of that balance.

I'm not saying this is in any way a problem. This is only a heads up.

ETA

Thinking on this a little more:

You are paying off early a (portion of a) balance you have at 0% anyway. Does this make sense? Would it not be better to wait until your 0% privilege expires and then take the $200 (in essence) as cash? Dunno. Just thinkin'.

BTW, word on the street says they modified this deal on 01/01/2013. I'm discussing here the deal as it existed in 2012 when most of us signed up.

guardian44 said: Just wanted to post a heads up here for anyone else participating in the ongoing Alliant Platinum Rewards $200 giveaway. It's a two part deal, really. First, if you spend your thousand you earn 20,000 points. Second, you gain access, for a year, to free balance transfers at zero interest up to your credit limit.

Focus on point redemption. It's not cash. Instead, it's a statement credit. So now looking at the intersection of the two aforementioned aspects of this deal:

If you're carrying a balance (at 0%) owing to balance transfer activity, your statement credit from the points deal will merely wipe away a portion of that balance.

I'm not saying this is in any way a problem. This is only a heads up.

ETA

Thinking on this a little more:

You are paying off early a (portion of a) balance you have at 0% anyway. Does this make sense? Would it not be better to wait until your 0% privilege expires and then take the $200 (in essence) as cash? Dunno. Just thinkin'.

BTW, word on the street says they modified this deal on 01/01/2013. I'm discussing here the deal as it existed in 2012 when most of us signed up.

They have no fee on balance transfers. Thus, when the $200 is credited you can re-borrow it if you owe another card $200. My current practice is whenever there is borrowing power is to do a balance transfer to use it. The $200 could easily be added to a balance transfer you might do anyhow. On $25,000 balance the minimum is about $750, so after paying this, you might re-borrow $950 at 0%.

Using the points fairly quickly seems to be wise so you do not lose them somehow, such as the card being canceled (possibly on death) or you forgetting to use them.

ProfessorEd said: guardian44 said: Just wanted to post a heads up here for anyone else participating in the ongoing Alliant Platinum Rewards $200 giveaway. It's a two part deal, really. First, if you spend your thousand you earn 20,000 points. Second, you gain access, for a year, to free balance transfers at zero interest up to your credit limit.

Focus on point redemption. It's not cash. Instead, it's a statement credit. So now looking at the intersection of the two aforementioned aspects of this deal:

If you're carrying a balance (at 0%) owing to balance transfer activity, your statement credit from the points deal will merely wipe away a portion of that balance.

I'm not saying this is in any way a problem. This is only a heads up.

ETA

Thinking on this a little more:

You are paying off early a (portion of a) balance you have at 0% anyway. Does this make sense? Would it not be better to wait until your 0% privilege expires and then take the $200 (in essence) as cash? Dunno. Just thinkin'.

BTW, word on the street says they modified this deal on 01/01/2013. I'm discussing here the deal as it existed in 2012 when most of us signed up.

They have no fee on balance transfers. Thus, when the $200 is credited you can re-borrow it if you owe another card $200. My current practice is whenever there is borrowing power is to do a balance transfer to use it. The $200 could easily be added to a balance transfer you might do anyhow. On $25,000 balance the minimum is about $750, so after paying this, you might re-borrow $950 at 0%.

Using the points fairly quickly seems to be wise so you do not lose them somehow, such as the card being canceled (possibly on death) or you forgetting to use them.

Thanks. Yes, I believe you're correct. And you raise excellent points. I still haven't taken the time to think this all the way through. But I now believe my earlier concern most likely to be in error. It's a forty-five day wait anyway, following application, just to obtain the credit. And I still have not even been able yet to apply (soon, I hope).

ETA

For the record, I received my points . . all $200 worth. I followed through based on the counsel of ProfessorEd and simply applied for a credit to be applied to my card total. I'm piling all my expenses onto this Alliant card right now, so a $200 credit 45 days out will not loom as a large event. Still, it's very nice and I'm grateful for the money . . or I will be grateful, I mean.

If you are doing as I do, using their 0% interest on balance transfers to reborrow soon after a payment (minimum) their practice of sending checks makes it hard to know when the payment will reach the designated card. It is probably best to mark a calendar and check just before the due date of the other card. I had set up to have automatic payments of the statement balance, but the Alliant check did not quite arrive soon enough to be credited against that payment. I plan next time to pick a card whose due date is three days later. It may also be wise check just before the due date to be sure the Alliant check arrived, and the right amount will be paid (and to then change the payment to be sure you pay the statement balance, but not more.

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